The present invention relates in general to fuel dispensers and fuel dispensing environments, and, in particular, to a dispenser and dispensing system capable of conducting financial transactions through a financial network.
Historically, a fuel dispenser""s only function was to dispense fuel from an underground storage tank to an automobile. As technology evolved, fuel dispensers were equipped with credit and debit card readers, and, to a limited extent, cash acceptors. These developments facilitated easy payment and dramatically increased convenience to customers. The increased convenience to the customer increased the number of transactions for each dispenser at a fueling station, but actually decreased the volume of sales in convenience stores associated with the fueling station. xe2x80x9cPay at the pumpxe2x80x9d customers are completing their transaction at the dispenser without going into the convenience store and purchasing goods and services that provide higher profit margins than fuel.
In an effort to attract customers into the convenience store, today""s fuel dispensers provide various levels of merchandising and advertising for marketing specific products and services, most of which are paid for at the dispenser using the card reader or cash acceptor. A further advancement in dispenser technology provides wireless communications between a dispenser or associated communications system and a remote communication unit or transponder carried by a person or mounted to a vehicle. These wireless communications systems typically interrogate the transponder to receive identification and account information sufficient to facilitate a transaction.
As indicated above, items purchased in a convenience store or associated quick-serve restaurant are much more profitable than the gasoline dispensed in the forecourt of a gas station. Many of the xe2x80x9cpay at the pumpxe2x80x9d customers are trying to maximize convenience and often carry little or no cash. Many of these customers avoid conducting a card transaction at the dispenser and then going into the convenience store to conduct another card transaction for additional products. If customers have sufficient disposable cash, they are more likely to conduct a quick cash transaction in the convenience store to purchase products. Unfortunately, most xe2x80x9cpay at the pumpxe2x80x9d customers do not have excess cash to purchase products. Furthermore, many times these customers would like quick access to cash and would find obtaining cash at a service station convenient.
Although many convenience stores now have automated teller machines (ATM""s), these machines typically charge both the station operator and the customer service charges or fees for obtaining cash. A substantial portion of these fees could be avoided if customers were given the opportunity to receive cash back in association with a transaction substantially carried out at the dispenser in association with a fueling or other ordering transaction. Thus, there is a need to provide a customer with cash in association with a fueling or other ordering transaction at a dispenser to increase available cash to the customer.
The present invention addresses these needs by providing a system and method allowing customers to conduct a transaction at a fuel dispenser and obtain cash back in association with the transaction at the dispenser or a common terminal in the dispenser forecourt. The system may include a cash dispenser at the fuel dispenser, fueling position, or the central terminal, or, alternatively, a delivery system configured to deliver cash from a central location to the customer at the dispenser, fueling position, or central terminal. During a transaction for purchasing fuel or other products associated with the service station, a customer is provided an opportunity to select an amount of cash to be dispensed or delivered in association with that transaction. Providing a customer the opportunity to receive cash back in association with a dispenser transaction will attract more customers to the station because of convenience as well as provide customers with more disposable cash to spend at the associated quick-serve restaurants and convenience store.
These and other aspects of the present invention will become apparent to those skilled in the art after reading the following description of the preferred embodiments when considered with the drawings.